United States Representative for Texas’ 19th Congressional District Jodey Arrington organized a roundtable discussed with the Lubbock County Democratic Party to allow local citizens to voice their concerns about current issues in regional and national legislation downtown at his office Saturday morning.
Officials with Arrington’s office told KLBK and EverythingLubbock.com that media was not allowed inside for the event. However, both parties had positive feedback to share after the event.
“This is part of an ongoing conversation,” Lubbock County Democratic Party Chair Stuart Williams said. “We want to create a dialogue with the Congressman so that he knows that we’re here and we’re looking at those issues.”
“Today we were Americans and West Texans first,” Rep. Arrington said. “We had a very honest and robust conversation.”
About 20 of Arrington’s constituents met with the congressman for about 45 minutes to discuss his role in West Texas, state, and national legislation.
“We covered energy, we covered immigration, we covered healthcare, we talked about agriculture,” Williams said. “We talked about a whole wide range of things. The Congressman let us know his view and we got our view across.”
“I think there’s a lot of work to be done regarding people who have mental incompetence being able to bare guns,” Roundtable Participant Brenda Cruz said. “I don’t think he and I necessarily agree on how to get there, but I was happy he was willing to hear where I stood.”
Arrington described today as constructive, productive, and candid throughout the conversation.
“We found places of common ground on wind energy and what that has meant to our farmers and to this economy and to our above energy plan in our national security,” Arrington said.
However, they said there were disagreements on healthcare reform and national issues in the White with President Trump.
Overall, the civil and constructive manner of both parties motivated Arrington to hold more of these discussion in the future.
“We’re going to continue to do these listening sessions, these roundtable discussions, these open office hours regularly,” Arrington said. “So they can share their concerns and so I can listen.”
